李平 is a rights-defense petitioner from Yangpu District, Shanghai. Her family home at 长白二村139号8室 was demolished in March 2006, and she has spent the years since petitioning authorities in Shanghai and Beijing over the unresolved compensation. She has been detained multiple times in connection with that petitioning.
Background
According to a 2021 account she gave to the independent Chinese-language outlet 民生观察, her home was forcibly demolished on March 30, 2006, and resettlement compensation was never resolved, leaving the family without a home. In December 2021, her son 王泽飞 was severely injured after jumping from a building on December 15, 2021; she attributed the act to despair over the family’s unresolved housing case. A later 2024 report describes him as having survived with serious injuries, including steel plates implanted in his body, and as still needing further surgery.
The same 2024 report states, citing an account of the case, that in 2017 the Yangpu District Court sentenced her to one year and five months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事罪), despite what she said was a certificate from Beijing authorities that she had committed no such offense there.
2023 detention
On June 28, 2023, six Shanghai petitioners — 项文寅, 徐玮, 李平, 俞忠欢, 王国财 and 诸枝花 — went to the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration in Beijing to file petitions. When the office did not send the customary text-message confirmation, they returned to ask about it and were intercepted by the Yuetan police station of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, handed over to Shanghai’s Beijing liaison office, had their identity cards seized, and were escorted back to Shanghai, where they were held on Changxing Island.
On July 2, 2023, 项文寅, 徐玮 and 李平 were criminally detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” by the Yangpu branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau and transferred to the Yangpu District Detention Center. The other three petitioners’ whereabouts were reported as unknown at the time. (Sources: 维权网, July 4, 2023; 民生观察, July 5, 2023.)
Trial and lawyer’s account
A 民生观察 report dated April 10, 2024 states that the Yangpu court sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Her appeal was heard on April 7, 2024 at the Shanghai Second Intermediate People’s Court, where she appeared in restraints; the hearing was adjourned. On April 8, her defense lawyer 王胜生 wrote to the court, the detention center and the procuratorate alleging mistreatment in custody — including restraints, forced nasal feeding and solitary confinement — and demanding a medical examination with family members present and a change of coercive measures. The outcome of the appeal was not found in the sources checked.
Custody-status note
The Rights Defense Network (维权网) monthly report for August 31, 2026 lists 李平 among eight Shanghai detainees held without sentence. That listing has not been reconciled in the sources checked with the 2024 report of a two-year sentence and the adjourned appeal described above; her custody status beyond the dated sources is not established.
A note on a different person with the same written name
A different person, 李萍 of Heilongjiang — a Falun Gong practitioner sentenced to three years and four months and released in December 2024 — shares a romanized name but uses a different character (萍 vs 平) and is not connected to this case.
Sources
- 维权网 (rights-defense information center), July 4, 2023 — “”七.一”前夕在北京遭截访的上海维权人士项文寅等三人已被”寻衅滋事罪”拘留”: reports the June 28, 2023 Beijing petition by the six petitioners, the interception and escort back to Shanghai, and the July 2, 2023 criminal detention of 项文寅, 徐玮 and 李平 on suspicion of 寻衅滋事罪, transferred to Yangpu District Detention Center. Full report
- 民生观察, July 5, 2023 — “项文寅等三人因进京上访被刑拘”: corroborates the six-person petition, the interception, and the July 2 criminal detentions. Full report
- 民生观察, December 21, 2021 — “上海政府暴力强迁不安置致人跳楼”: the demolition background and son’s injury, in her own account. Full report
- 民生观察, April 10, 2024 — “律师致信要求停止虐待李平以及保障其看病权”: reports a two-year sentence for 寻衅滋事罪 by the Yangpu court, the April 7, 2024 second-instance hearing at the Shanghai Second Intermediate People’s Court (adjourned), and defense lawyer 王胜生’s April 8 letter alleging mistreatment in custody and demanding a medical examination with family present and a change of coercive measures; also carries her earlier history (2017 sentence account, son’s injuries). Full report
- Rights Defense Network / 维权网, 中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告（2026年8月31日）第131期 — roster listing, Shanghai detained-without-sentence group.
Further reading
The full documented case record for 李平 is preserved in a companion media archive, which gathers the case chronology, cited sources, and evidentiary limitations in one place.